Gang busted: Four robbers posing as Customs officials arrested

Police say the suspects used to rob people, mostly expatriates, near Benazir Bhutto airport

ISLAMABAD: Four members of an inter-provincial gang posing as Customs officials were arrested here on Monday, said a police official.

Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of Islamabad Police arrested the four robbers on the Islamabad Expressway while they were busy in robbing a man.

When contacted, SIU head Capt (retd) Ilyas Malik confirmed busting of the gang saying they were active in the city for the last two months. He said that one of their accomplices, identified as Muhammad Badar, fled in a car.



The police seized local and foreign currency, cell phones, jewellery, wireless sets, police uniform including caps and shirts from their possession.

Malik said that the robbers, identified as Amjad Saeed, Muhammad Rabani, Jasim Ahmed and Yasir Khan, hailing from Karachi, Hyderabad and Quetta, were university graduates.

According to the official, the robbers would loot passengers, mostly expatriates coming from abroad outside Benazir Bhutto airport.

Another official requesting anonymity informed The Express Tribune about the modus operandi of the gang members, saying that they would use three stolen cars with fake number plates (JAJ-8546), (GAG-2863) and (LHR-5312) to evade police as the Excise and Taxation Department did not have any record of the cars, the official said.

They would employ different tactics to intercept people on the Islamabad Expressway and other locations around the airport. They would place hooters on their cars while posing themselves as Customs officials to loot people at gunpoint and vanish from the scene, the official said.

The police official said that they have also started a crack down on the sale and use of illegal hooters.

Further investigation is underway.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2015.